Brooke83

It really depends on what you think you may spend. The boat charges for pictures (you don't have to buy any, but 1st cruise you might). Pictures are taken when you get on the boat, every port you get off the boat, the 1st few nights at dinner, and of course on Deck 5 on formal nights they have all kinds of set ups for formal pictures. They are available in the Pixels gallery. Drinks (alcohol or soda) get charged to the room. Spa gets charged to the room. Casino gets charged to the boat. Gift shop purchases. Etc.

We always pay for all of our shore excursions and spa treatments up front so those are accounted for in advance. Other than that, we spend about $500 to $1000 when we are on the boat. Usually, the boat puts like a $300 hold on our MC. As we charge to the room, they will put an extra hold of $200 or so depending on how many days on the cruise. The final charge is usually on the card the day after debarkation.

I would advise you to check your S&S account occasionally and make sure the charges are yours. There are kiosks around the boat (usually near the customer service desk, the casino, etc - it will show on the deck plans/map). I think you can either It can happen that charges appear that are not yours, or a credit you should have received does not show. Keep receipts that you are given JIC.

So I need to have an somewhere around $500 on the card just for holds that they place? Can you add cash to your s&s card and not the credit card thing? We have another couple going with us so we can take our own pictures. But I paid for everything in advance including gratuities, and had a budget of $750 for on board a few drinks and any shopping in the ports. But if they put a hold on that large amount (300-500) then I may need to reconsider my budget.

I wish someone would have explained all of the holds that can come up on your credit/debit cards. I was not prepared financially to cruise at all and my S&S got locked so I couldn't do anything. I had to log onto the internet (pay by the minute plan back then) and try to shuffle what little money I had around in my accounts and pray my paycheck got deposited sooner rather than later.

What type of holds and for what amounts. This is what makes me nervous. Not knowing how much money I need to set aside in this certain account. First time cruiser and I'm very OCD and a planner and like to have exactly what we need in this one account so I don't have to be transferring money throughout the trip.